US Government Promises Not to Oppose Parole of Convicted Spy for Israel, Jonathan Pollard in November 2015

In the midst of contentious exchanges between Israel and the US over the contents of a deal to limit Iran’s nuclear weapons building timetable, the US government announces that it would not oppose the scheduled November 2015 parole of convicted spy, Jonathan Pollard. Since his conviction for spying on the US and giving secret materials to Israel in exchange for money in the 1980s, his potential release is discussed dozens of times by virtually every US president and Israeli Prime Minister since then. For almost three decades, resolution of the so-called “Pollard Affair” remains a discomforting presence in the overall Israeli-US relationship.